We should be careful to note the nature of the Zoramite pride and boasting. It would be easy to assume that there was great pride in their assumption that they were better than other peoples. We should be somewhat cautious of excoriating that particular sentiment, since it is such a fundamental part of human nature. We, as humans, tend to believe that the best organization is the one to which we belong. This tendency is seen in national pride and in such mundane things as sports teams.
The very idea that people might argue which sports team is the best is an indication that pride of belonging is a very strong urge. While the Zoramites don’t have sports teams, and are not a large nation, they are nevertheless a city, and they are unified in their common beliefs. The very fact that they have chosen to gather themselves together suggests that they think their beliefs are better than those of the peoples from whom they have separated.
The pride of the Zoramites that Alma is concerned with is not the pride of community. Alma would not mind that different colleges each suppose their own sports teams are “the best.” What Alma finds disruptive is the same marker of pride that we have seen from other prophets in the Book of Mormon. It is the social stratification that comes with using economic wealth as a divider.
It is no mistake that we get Alma’s concerns over pride after his mention of the love of gold and silver and in the context of the fine clothing (coming shortly). Those are the dangerous and divisive elements of pride because they undermine communities and fragment them into smaller groups that are not based on principles that might been a wide number of people together, but rather principles that clearly separate and lift one privileged group over another. Sports teams may include all social strata, but the tyranny of the economically elite is exclusive. We should also remember that it isn’t the money, it is the social segregation, the attitude of superiority linked to money, that is the evil.